Dawn Fraser: The Australian rebel

First woman to defend an Olympic swimming title

By

AFP

PublishedMonday, August 01, 2016

A delighted Dawn Fraser waves in acknowledgement after again breaking the world record in the 110-yards freestyle. Her victory was one of four gold medals won in Perth. (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

The Australian swimmer made her mark in the 100m freestyle, taking gold in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and then in Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964.

In doing so, she became the first woman to defend an Olympic swimming title and the first Olympic swimmer of either sex to win the same event three times.

Fraser also won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay in 1956 and earned silver medals in four other events over the Games in which she competed.

However, her career was also defined by clashes with Australia's swimming authorities. After the Rome Olympics, she was handed a two-year ban after a number of minor offences, including not wearing the team tracksuit to receive her medal.

At Tokyo, she defied team orders by marching in the ceremony, wore an unofficial swimsuit while competing and finally she was caught stealing souvenir flags near the Imperial Palace - crimes which earned her a whopping 10-year ban, prompting her retirement.

Fraser, from a working-class suburb of Sydney, remains one of Australia's most outspoken sports heroes, and recently courted controversy when she told misbehaving tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic "to go back to where their parents came from", comments for which she later apologised.